Florida Was Too Eager To Outgun Notre Dame

THE SPORTS COLUMN

NEW ORLEANS — By golly, Notre Dame deserved to be in the Sugar Bowl, after all.

The selection committee was right. ABC-TV was right. The corporate heads inside Irish Inc. were right to muscle into a big payday in New Orleans.

And Notre Dame coach Lou Holtz may never set the curve among defensive coordinators, but the resourceful little man in charge of the ghosts at South Bend squeezed just enough emotion out of his Irish defenders to help the potent Florida Gators gag on their offensive impatience.

Underdog Notre Dame 39, previously No. 3-ranked Florida 28 in a shocking Sugar Bowl that will not go down easily for the SEC-champion Gators.

Eager to run up the score on a recently porous Notre Dame defense that had been taken over by Holtz, Florida coach Steve Spurrier tried to throw too deep too often. Instead of putting the game away early - as their first-half statistical domination suggested - the Gators kept having to settle for Arden Czyzewski field goals (5) while the Irish built momentum and confidence.

Spurrier openly relished the opportunity to ply his heralded X's and O's against an adversary so vaunted and so inexperienced as a defensive signal-caller. ''Certainly, this is a little different sort of game for me,'' Spurrier had confessed a day earlier. ''I usually try to challenge the defensive coordinator. This is the first time I've had the head coach of the other team take over the defense. I look at it as an extra challenge.''

All appeared according to form in the early going as the Gators swept to a quick touchdown after Holtz gave Florida the ball when Notre Dame deferred its option after winning the coin toss.

The Irish even appeared to lapse into the panic mode before the first quarter was over, gambling on a fourth down barely across midfield. But the Irish were guilty of a procedure penalty and wound up punting.

Spurrier and UF quarterback Shane Matthews quickly discovered a sinkhole in the middle of Holtz's secondary large enough to swallow houses, 18-wheelers and herds of cattle. Deciding they'd rather exploit it rather than build a fence around it, they kept sending wideout Willie Jackson into the curious void to catch passes. By halftime, Willie had more than 100 yards of them, including one for a 15-yard touchdown that had put Florida ahead less than five minutes into the game.

The Gators' 16-7 halftime lead didn't truly reflect the woodshed whipping this might have been. By the end of the opening period, Florida had gained 161 yards to Notre Dame's 31, 10 first downs to Notre Dame's 1.

But Matthews clearly had not fully recovered from his arthroscopic knee surgery on Dec. 3. He ran tenuously on those rare occasions when he was flushed from the pocket - once buckling to the turf while under pressure from no one. He underthrew several long passes, including an attempt at a quick kill by Spurrier when the Irish fumbled their first kickoff return at the 39. Already up 7-0, Spurrier tried to get it all on the next play, a bomb to Alonzo Sullivan. However, free safety Willie Clark collected the underthrow and there was to be no Orange and Blue laugher on this night.

Taking advantage of injuries to two Florida inside linebackers, the Irish owned the second half with an inside power game. Fullback Jerome Bettis scored three touchdowns to win the game MVP award, deflating the Gators with 49-and 39-yard scoring runs inside the final four minutes.

An unsung hero for the Irish was a gritty Floridian who has made a career of proving he belongs in major-college football. Joe Wessel was a walk-on star of Florida State special teams in the early '80s, breaking NCAA records for blocking kicks and scoring touchdowns on blocks. Pursuing a coaching career after graduation, Wessel had to take a humbling post as a volunteer assistant at LSU before earning a full-time spot under Mike Archer.

When Archer was fired last year, Joe had to take another volunteer spot at Notre Dame, in effect the third time he had been a walk-on as a college player or coach. He dipped into his savings to survive. At season's end, he was elevated to interim linebackers coach, a chance he made the most of against the dangerous Gators.

At game's end, jubilant Joe could be seen wearing the grin of a young man who proved he belongs. Just as his team belonged in this Sugar Bowl.